It's a bit of a mystery to me why people are so keen to try to dismiss population growth as a key factor which underpins our major capital city property markets.
I mean, just take a look at today's numbers from the ABS:
Source: ABS
In the year to December 2012, the population of Australia increased by 394,200 people or 1.8%, which is way ahead of the long-term average of 1.4%.
Of course, population growth does not occur smoothly across the states.
In some states such as South Australia (+15,600), ACT (+8,600), Northern Territory (+4,200) and Tasmania (+400), the absolute growth numbers continue to be quite small. I don't expect that to change too much.
On the other hand, take a look at what is happening in the states which house the major capital cities.
The population of WA is absolutely booming by 3.5% in the year to December 2012 or 83,000 people, so it's little wonder that the Perth property market is flying.
And in Queensland (+92,500), Victoria (+99,500) and New South Wales (+90,400) the population growth continues apace.
People continue to head largely to the capital cities, and so it's little coincidence that over the past 12 months prices in Sydney (+4.61%) and Perth are smoking along (+7.8%). Growth in Melbourne has been a little more subdued (+2.12%) but then, why wouldn't it be? Melbourne has, after all, experienced a quite phenomenal boom in prices since 2007.
It's small wonder that we struggle to keep up with accommodation and infrastructure needs with population growth figures such as these reported today.
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